Tuesday, 18 Mar 2014, 9:00:00 AM

Tim Broughton

A 43-year-old Santa Monica man was arrested on Saturday, March 8 after assaulting his neighbor who had filmed him smoking at their apartment complex’s shared patio.

Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department went to the 2800 block of Santa Monica Boulevard at 5 pm on this day in order to investigate a report of vandalism.

Upon arrival they spoke with the victim who told them she lived in the complex and that she shared a common patio area with other tenants.

She said she had placed some potted plants around her area of the patio in order to create some privacy.

She continued to say that there was a neighbor that she had noticed had been smoking on the patio in violation of a rule, so she had filmed the offense with her cellphone camera.

She said that the neighbor had seen her doing this and had become enraged and waved his hands in the air whilst displaying just the middle finger of each hand (this is a common gesticulated insult).

She added that at that point the neighbor had then approached her, pushed her over, and pulled all of the plants out of the pots that she had laid out for the purpose of privacy.

It was at that moment that she had returned to her apartment and called the police.

The officers found the neighbor and determined that he was not just uncooperative, but also intoxicated.

The officers arrested this Santa Monica resident and he was charged with assault and vandalism.

Bail was set at $20,000.

Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of The Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.